Gene Patents Face Reckoning

Last year, Quest Diagnostics Inc. spent $740 million to buy a company that owns rights to some patents on human genes. So the prospect of a Supreme Court ruling in 2013 striking down such patents might seem scary.

It isn't, said spokeswoman Wendy Bost. An end to gene patents could be a "positive development," she said, "because it would open new opportunities to develop new testing services based on gene...